Essay/Term paper: Alexander graham bell

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Biography Term Papers

Alexander Graham Bell


Alexander Graham Bell was born in 1847. As a child He took after his
grandfather who was an actor who entertained people with his voice. Alexanders
mother, who was deaf, would have people talk to her through her ear tube, which
amplifies speech by talking through a object that looked like a horn. Alexander
choose to talk to his mother by speaking in low tones very close to her
forehead. Alexander thought that his mother would be able to "hear" him by the
vibrations his voice put on her forehead. Alexander at about the age of 14 and
his brother, Melville, created a contraption that had a fake mouth, tongue, and
lungs that you could force air out of. This contraption could make human-like
sounds. After this Alexander manipulated his dogs vocal cords and mouth to
change growls to words. By the time Alexander was sixteen he was teaching music
at a boys boarding school.

Alexander Bell meet Thomas Watson at an electrical machine shop, Watson and
Alexander formed a friendship after Alexander told him of his idea about
transmitting speech over a wire. On June 2,1875, when working in the
transmitting room Watson produced a twang when trying to loosen up a wire. 
Alexander working on the transmitter was able to send sounds that resembled that
of a human voice. Next, Alexander discovered that a wire vibrated by speech
when placed in a conducting liquid, like mercury and would produce a current. 
Basically speech could be transmitted by wire. On March 10,1876 Alexander and
Watson were working on the machine when Alexander knocked over battery acid. He
shouted, "Mr. Watson, come here. I need you!" and Watson working in the
receiver room heard his voice coming through the wire.

Later, the Bell Company was formed, which is now AT&T. Before Alexander died
in 1922, he had invented an electric probe for locating metal objects in bodies,
and the artificial respirator.